The invention described herein was made by an employee of the United States Government and may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.
The present invention relates generally to a climate control system for a vehicle. More particularly, the climate control system can be used to selectively heat or cool the interior of a vehicle that is not in use.
The interiors of parked vehicles often become very hot if parked in the sun during a hot day or become very cold during cold days. Numerous techniques are available on hot days to minimize this problem such as leaving windows cracked to allow the hot interior air to escape, putting up sunshades in the vehicle windows to minimize the amount of sunlight absorbed, or driving the vehicle with the windows down until the hot air escapes. On cold days, vehicles can be started before they are driven to allow the vehicle""s engine to heat the interior. Such methods are slow and inefficient because they simply reduce the heat retained or created, or they require running the vehicle engine, which consumes fuel.
A device for heating and cooling the interior of a vehicle is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,330 to Harris et al. wherein thermoelectric coolers are mounted within the roof of the vehicle and which can alternately be used to cool or heat the vehicle interior. This system may be used when the vehicle is not running, but it is powered by a alternator-charged battery which has a limited duration of use between the charging of the battery. A solar powered system for heating and cooling a vehicle interior with thermoelectric coolers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,203 to Sundhar wherein the system is permanently mounted within the vehicle and the solar panel is used within the vehicle""s interior. This system would be very difficult and expensive to install into or remove from a vehicle, and the mounting of the solar panels within the vehicle""s interior would diminish the panel""s efficiency.
Thus a need exists for an apparatus which selectively cools and heats the interior of a vehicle when the vehicle is not in use and which does not deplete the vehicle battery or consume fuel. Furthermore, a need exists for an apparatus which can be conveniently mounted to or removed from a vehicle.
The invention addresses the above needs and achieves other advantages by providing a vehicle climate control system comprising a solar panel removably attachable to the exterior of a vehicle to serve as a sole source of electricity to the climate control system. At least one thermoelectric cooler is provided for operatively heating or cooling the vehicle interior. The thermoelectric coolers have an interior surface that can include an interior heat sink and an exterior surface that can include an exterior heat sink. An interior fan circulates interior air across the interior surface, and an exterior fan circulates exterior air across the exterior surface. A thermostatic switch regulates the electric current flow to the thermoelectric coolers to cool the interior surface of the thermoelectric coolers when the thermostatic switch detects an interior air temperature greater than a predetermined limit. The thermostatic switch reverses the electric current flow to heat the interior surface of the thermoelectric coolers when the thermostatic switch detects an interior air temperature less than a predetermined limit. In one embodiment, a housing is provided to hold the thermoelectric coolers, interior fan, exterior fan, and thermostatic switch within the housing, creating a unit. The unit can include a removable connection to the solar panel. The unit may be converted from an operable position to a stored position. In the operable position, the unit is preferably mounted upon a partially opened window of the non-running vehicle, creating a barrier between the interior air and the exterior air.